Edward Wagenknecht (1900–2004)

In On Hanging a Stocking at Christmas, the author shares memories of Christmas at his house. (With some debate over the advantages of Christmas trees vs. stockings.)

The Fir-Tree. In this Hans Christian Andersen tale, a fir tree living in the woods is cut down, experiences one glorious day as a Christmas tree, and then gets sent up to the attic to die. The theme - "appreciate what you have, because it could be taken away at any minute" - hits as a little bleak for a Christmas story!

A show more Christmas Legend of Hamelin Town posits that once a year, on Christmas Day, the children lured away by the pied piper of Hamelin return - but only that one day a year, and once the last mother ages and passes away, they disappear forever. Sheesh!

In The Legend of the Christmas Rose, a friar witnesses a Christmas Day miracle, a forest transformed into a lush Eden, but just as the angels come for him, his skeptical companion dispels the miracle and the friar dies clutching the last remaining vestige of the forest, tubers that - when planted in the priory garden, grow into the first Christmas Rose.

In Twinkle, a mischevious but good-hearted angel is moved to gift his halo to infant Jesus, a gesture mocked by his fellow angels but lauded by his boss, who gifts him a shiny new gold halo to replace the one he gave away.

Mrs. Barber's Christmas tells the story of a weary, aging old woman who experiences a glorious hallucination in church, but just as the angels are sweeping her up to heaven, she's awaken by the vicar, who walks her home. I really, really expected this to go another way.

The State Versus Santa Claus is a fairly straightforward allegorical tale - Santa is being tried in a court for threatening reason and modernity with his irrational, folklore-based activities - but ends strangly, with a blizzard that I think is meant to symbolize ...? the overwhelming affirmation of children? wonder?

(To be continued ...) show less

Even a small book can pack a big punch.

This is a fairly thin volume, but it includes many extremely important essays in Chaucer criticism. There is a bit of a checklist feeling to the result ("We need one essay on the Pardoner's Tale, one on the Wife's Tale, one on the Knight's Tale..."), which may be a little unbalanced -- but there is obviously a lot to be said for a single book which gives access to the single most influential writing on each of Chaucer's major works.

The material is from show more the mid-twentieth century and earlier, so some of it is perhaps a little out of date. But there is value in almost all of it, as long as you're willing to accept it as provisional. There are books with newer insights. There are very few with more insights. show less

2039 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: His Poetry and Prose, by Edward Wagenknecht (read 19 Dec 1986) This is a little book which says something about Longfellow's life and all his work, and I found it enlightening and well worth reading. I was surprised at the great volume of his work--much I had never heard of. The editions of his works run to 11 or 14 volumes! He was born Feb 27, 1807, and died Mar 24, 1882. This book indicated to me that those things of Longfellow's I appreciate--e.g., A Boy's show more Will--are not bad. The comments on "A Psalm of Life," which I've known so well since 6th grade, were nevertheless things I'd never thought of: "Cattle do not participate in battles, nor are battles fought in bivouac...'The sands of time', if anything definite is indicated, would presumably indicate the sand in an hourglass, but since footprints could not possibly appear there, Longfellow must be thinking of the sand on the sea beach. If a man wishes to be remembered, however, to leave his footprints there must be about the last thing he could desire, for the first tide that comes in will wash them away. It is hard to see also how the 'forlorn...brother ' could, at the same time, find himself 'shipwrecked' and 'sailing o'er life's solemn main,' or how, if he were thus sailing, he could see the footprints in the sand, or why, if he did see them, he should be heartened by them." show less

My very favorite collection of Christmas stories, with religious stories, fantasies, carols, and humor.